Thanks for the replies, heres an update after I had a chance to look at things last night.
First off, when I opened up the stator, there was oil at the bottom. not alot, but enough to put a film on all the parts. Based on how hard the flywheel was to get off, i dont think anyone has been in there for a while, so hard to tell how bad the leak is.
The condenser was if not original, very old. the points looked ok, but needed to pickup some feeler gauges this morning to check the gap. connections had a reasonable amount of corrosion, plus crud due to the oil leak. found the kill line, which runs off of the throttle position. wire sheath looked worn in areas. so heres the plan:
-clean all parts to remove oil.
-replace condenser, and regap points
-replace kill line with new wire
-clean connections with emory cloth
A couple questions:
-are the 3 tools shown in the manual (oil seal driver, protector and remover) required to replace the seal?
-if I remove the stator will I need to retime the ignition? reading through the process, this is something i'd like to avoid if possible
I'm feeling optimistic that fixing these things will improve how the engine runs (and like I said originally, it ran well up to this year). If it doesn't do it, on to the carb....